ITFA Global Tea Taster’s Club, August Shipment, Part 4: Old Style Gyokuro (First Flush)

Leaf Type:  Green

Produced by Kurihara Seicha

For More Information, visit the Tea Farms webpage

About ITFA Global Tea Tasters Club:

By subscribing to the Global Tea Tasters Club, you will receive tea from ITFA tea farms 6 times per year. Each time, we will select a different region to feature and as we grow in tea farm members, so will your tea experience.

Your tea will also be accompanied by info about the tea and the tea farms themselves.

To know where your tea is coming from, who has grown and produced it, to taste the difference in teas from around the world…what could be better?

Taster’s Review:

I’ve not tried a lot of Gyokuro, but, of those that I’ve tried, this is easily the BEST.  It is ah-MAAAZ-ing!

It is incredibly sweet, but not a cloying, sugary sweet.  It is more of a vegetal sweetness, like the naturally occurring sweetness you might taste in a vegetable.  There are hints of grassiness to this, but not a bitter grassy taste.  If I could only use one word to summarize the flavor of this tea, the word would be sweet.

But, one word does not make a review, does it? 

The texture of this Gyokuro is thick and broth-y, or as the literature provided with the Global Tea Taster’s Club package suggests:  syrupy.  It is incredibly smooth and rich in flavor.  While the overall flavor can be described as sweet, there are some intriguing savory notes to the tea.  It tastes very fresh (and it should, as it was harvested in May of this year).

The price of the subscription to the Global Tea Taster’s Club is worth it for this tea alone!  Yes.  It is THAT good.